Development Trends of China's Innovative Tumor Drugs

From 2015 to 2021, China's pharmaceutical industry upgrades and reforms have achieved leapfrog development with the launch of the pharmaceutical policy reform
.
Nowadays, the domestic pharmaceutical ecosystem is becoming more and more active and perfect, and the help of capital and policies has also enabled China's oncology innovative drug field to achieve a "blowout" development

Currently, China's new tumor drug products and pipelines are beginning to take shape, and various innovative drugs and technologies such as small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, double antibodies, ADCs, and protein degradants are also constantly iterating
.
However, the rapid follow-up strategy for popular targets and indications will inevitably cause serious homogeneity concerns while satisfying patient accessibility

In the long run, China's oncology drug market will continue to grow
.
Due to the large population base, accelerated aging, and high incidence of characteristic tumor types, the sales and proportion of domestic oncology drugs have also increased year by year

The main reason for this phenomenon is that cancer treatment in China is still dominated by non-patented drugs such as chemotherapy
.
In the past two years, this trend is accelerating to reverse, and the proportion of innovative drugs such as small-molecule targeted drugs, large-molecule targeted drugs, and immunotherapy has gradually increased

Attracted by the huge market pie, more and more innovative pharmaceutical companies have also poured into the field of anti-cancer drugs, which has created a continuous increase in the number of anti-cancer drugs in China
.
In terms of the number of oncology drugs, China and the United States are already in the first echelon

In addition, there is still a big gap between the number of tumor pipelines of Chinese head companies and MNC
.
As a battleground for innovative drugs, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are particularly focused on the field of oncology, especially popular targets and indications

Even so, the competitive landscape in the field of oncology is different
.
There is still huge clinical demand for tumor types such as liver cancer, gastric cancer and esophageal cancer with Chinese characteristics

Undoubtedly, it is precisely the changes in the internal and external environment such as pharmaceutical policy reform, centralized procurement, and capital that have led to the rise of innovative Chinese oncology drugs
.
Since 2017, the registration path for innovative drugs has gradually become smoother, and the number of innovative drug applications has also been increasing

Similarly, with the increase in the number of innovative drug applications, the number of registered clinical trials carried out by Chinese pharmaceutical companies has also grown rapidly
.
Especially in the field of oncology, the number of registered clinical trials of Chinese pharmaceutical companies has surpassed that of American pharmaceutical companies in 2018
.
Among the registered clinical trials in the oncology field in China, the number of clinical trials led by Chinese pharmaceutical companies has reached 75%, and the harvest will be ushered in the next few years
.

During the same period, the number of China's FIC and me too products also achieved rapid growth at the same time
.
Especially after 2017, the number of FIC products with dual/polyclonal antibodies and cell therapy as the mainstay has increased significantly
.
The rapid increase in the number of such products, thanks to the blooming of China's innovative technology platforms, has enabled the emerging therapies of Chinese oncology drugs to keep pace with the world
.
Among them, the differentiated design represented by double antibodies has gradually appeared, and products with high innovation in molecular design and target combination have been continuously produced based on the platform
.
It seems that it has become a strategy to find homogenization and break the game
.

On the other hand, related transactions of Chinese companies have become more frequent, and the transaction amount has gradually increased
.
Among them, the number of transactions in the oncology field is still the largest, mainly with License in, but License Out has begun to show its strength
.
In 2021, many large transactions occurred in License Out, setting new transaction records repeatedly
.
China's innovation capabilities are gradually being recognized by the world, and products in the oncology field are taking the lead
.

It can be said that the innovative drugs of Chinese pharmaceutical companies are also becoming an important source of foreign companies' strategic layout, product supplements and rapid entry
.
At the same time, independent innovation is no longer the only source of innovative pharmaceutical companies' pipelines.
More and more pharmaceutical companies are accelerating the integration of capital, R&D, production and sales and other advantages, and exploring various forms of cooperation between different companies, including domestic commercial cooperation and subregional cooperation in areas such as sub diseases and conditions cooperate
.

In addition to external authorization and cooperation, more and more Chinese pharmaceutical companies have begun to build their own overseas teams, and the number of overseas clinical research on domestic drugs has continued to increase.
Global development has become China's leading companies such as BeiGene, Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, and Cinda Biotech.
The inevitable choice
.